Christopher Eaker, Peter Fernandez and Miriam Davis

Since passage of the Morrill Acts of 1862 and 1890 and the subsequent Hatch Act of 1887 and Smith-Lever Act of 1914, land-grant universities have conducted basic and applied research in agricultural sciences and disseminated the results of that research to citizens of their respective states. The Smith-Lever Act of 1914 clearly states the purpose of the cooperative agricultural extension component of the land-grant university as “...the development of practical applications of research knowledge and giving of instruction and practical demonstrations of existing or improved practices or technologies in agriculture...” Thus, as a significant goal of the land-grant university, this dissemination of new knowledge, applications, and technologies hinges on the effective management of data and subsequent sharing of that data.

This project will explore the data management practices and data sharing attitudes among agricultural researchers at two public land-grant institutions, one in the southeastern United States and one in the mountain region of the United States. The researchers intend to determine how these practices and attitudes serve the mission of the land-grant university as stated within the Morrill Act of 1862. This poster will share the initial results of the research project by explaining research methodology, defining study population, sharing preliminary findings, and presenting possible future directions.